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Thread: Jordan Maxwell & Other Paranormal Stories

  1. #136
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    Crop Circles. The Mowing Devil. 1678.



    THE MOWING-DEVIL:
    OR, STRANGE NEWS OUT OF HARTFORD-SHIRE

    (The exact text from the original woodcut)

    Being a True Relation of a Farmer, who Bargaining with a Poor Mower, about the Cutting down Three Half Acres of Oats: upon the Mower's asking too much, the Farmer swore That the Devil should Mow it rather than He. And so it fell out, that very Night, the Crop of Oat shew'd as if it had been all of a Flame: but next Morning appear'd so neatly mow'd by the Devil or some Infernal Spirit, that no Mortal Man was able to do the like. Also; How the said Oats ly now in the Field, and the Owner has not Power to fetch them away.
    Licensed, August 22, 1678.

    The provenance of the Mowing Devil is 100% solid, the original can be found in the British Library, referance: The Mowing-Devil: or, strange news out of Hartfordshire, London 1678.
    British Library Identifier: System number 001667544 General Reference Collection 8631.bb.27

    Copies and variations of the original appeared in several reprints in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These are also listed with the original in a British Library calalog search using the search term "Mowing Devil".
    Frances.
    Last edited by Frances, 20th July 2015 at 17:26.

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  3. #137
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    Glad you are enjoying it Lookbeyond.
    You may even have a story to contribute?
    As you may have noticed, I like an image to go with the story. It's like a visual aid and sits better in my memory box.
    Frances.

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    Really neat thread and wanted to thank you for the effort.

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    Thank you Mojo, glad you are popping in for a bit of a read.
    Frances.

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    The Unicorn.



    Unknown Explorers - Unicorn

    The Unicorn, from the Latin words unus meaning one and cornu meaning horn, is a legendary mythological creature known the world over from folktales, songs, poems, ancient bestiaries, and epic stories. Though the modern image of the Unicorn is that of a white steed with a single ivory horn protruding from its forehead, the more traditional image of the Unicorn has the beard of a goat, the tail of a lion and cloven hooves, depending on the region the Unicorn can take on other physical properties as well.

    An early written account of the Unicorn appeared about 5,000 years ago in Chinese Mythology where the Unicorn can appear in many different physical forms but is most commonly described as having the body of a deer, the tail of an ox, the hooves of a horse and of course a single short horn growing out of the middle of its forehead. The hair on its back was said to contain the five sacred Chinese colors, which are red, yellow, blue, white and black, and is some times depicted with green scales like a dragon.

    visit - Unicorn gallery The Chinese Unicorn was known as the Kilin a combination of both the words Ki, the male Unicorn and Lin, the female Unicorn. It was said to have lived for roughly one thousand years and was always careful not to tread on even the tiniest living thing eating only plant life that had naturally died. It was believed that the appearance of the Unicorn was as sign of good time to come, and the fact that it has not been seen in many centuries is believed by some to suggest that we are living in bad times. These same people also believe that the Unicorn will reappear when the time is right and when goodness reigns.

    Chinese mythology also tells of how the Unicorn could foretell the birth of great men such as the philosopher Confucius whose pregnant mother was said to have met a Unicorn in the woods in 551 B.C. The Unicorn gave her a small piece of jade, a symbol of wisdom, and placed its head in her lap; she realized the importance of this event and took it as a good omen from the gods. Along the same lines the Unicorn was said to be able to foretell the death of great men and sure enough in Confucius’ old age he reportedly saw a Unicorn himself and knew it meant he would soon die.

    In addition to China, other Asian countries also have traditions which involve Unicorn like creatures. In Japan it is known as the Kirin which has a shaggy mane and the body of a bull. Unlike the Chinese Unicorn, it was a beast to be feared, especially by criminals. The Kirin was said to be able to detect guilt, Japanese judges even went as far as to call upon the beast when they themselves could not determine the guilty party. Upon delegating guilt the Kirin would cast its gaze upon the criminal and pierce him through the heart with its horn.

    visit - Unicorn gallery By the 4th century B.C. the Unicorn had become a very popular animal in the Western world and was made mention of in the writings of Greek historian and physician Ctesias, who returned from his travels to Persia with fantastic stories of a creature he called the wild ass of India. Though he himself did not witness one of these creatures they were described to him as being equal in size to a horse, with a white body, a red head, bluish eyes and a straight horn which grew from its forehead. He further described the lower part of the horn as being white, the middle black and the tip red.

    As a physician stories that this creature’s horn protected against deadly poison especially interested Ctesias who would later learn that drinking cups made from the horn of a Unicorn were believed to possess the power of neutralizing poisons if one were to drink from them.

    Shortly after Ctesias’ stories of the Unicorn became known the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle deduced that the Unicorn was more than likely a real animal; however he did not believe that the creature’s horn contained any magical powers. The respected historian Pliny the Elder included the Unicorn in his master work, Historia Naturalis, and came to the conclusion that the Unicorn did, in fact, existed in India. Unlike the typical Unicorn in Western mythology Pliny’s version of the creature was a ferocious beast with the body of the horse, the head of a deer, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a wild boar and a single black horn protruding from its forehead. Both Pliny the Elder and Aristotle deducted that there was no more reason to doubt the existence of the Unicorn than that of an elephant or giraffe, pointing out that just because they had never personally seen one did not mean it did not exist.

    visit - Unicorn gallery Belief in the Unicorn continued during medieval times and stemmed from both Biblical and ancient accounts of the creature. According to the book of Genesis, God gave Adam the task of naming everything he saw and in some translations of the Bible, the Unicorn was the first creature named, thereby elevating it above all other beasts in the universe. When Adam and Eve were forced to leave paradise the Unicorn went with them and came to represent purity and chastity, thus the belief in the Unicorn’s purity is thought to have stemmed from its Biblical beginnings.

    The Bible also offers its explanation as to why the Unicorn has not been seen in such a long period of time. During the great flood, that engulfed the world for 40 days and 40 nights, Noah took two of every animal and placed them aboard his Arc so that they may survive, however the Unicorns were not among them. A Jewish folk tale mentions that the Unicorn was original aboard the Arc, but demanded so much space and attention that Noah banished them. When the world began to flood these Unicorns most assuredly drowned, however some believe that they evolved into the Arctic narwhale.

    By 200 A.D., noted Christian apologist Tertullian had dubbed the Unicorn a small fierce kidlike animal and a symbol of Christ himself, its horn later to become symbolic of the unity of Christ and God. Some have argued that the due to the strong belief in the Unicorn’s existence in the Bible that the creature must have, at one point, existed. However there are those who believe that during the translation of the bible the term Unicorn was mistranslated and used in place of several other horned animals, causing it to appear in the Bible more than originally intended.

    As time passed and explorers began to sail the earth they would often return with tales of fantastic monsters and animals from the far off places they had been. One such report, by famous explorer Marco Polo, described a creature that he called a Unicorn as follows:

    visit - Unicorn gallery Scarcely smaller than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant's. They have a single large black horn in the middle of the forehead... They have a head like a wild boar's… They spend their time by preference wallowing in mud and slime. They are very ugly brutes to look at. They are not at all such as we describe them when we relate that they let themselves be captured by virgins, but clean contrary to our notions.

    Its is fairly clear by his description of the Unicorn that Marco Polo was describing a rhinoceros leading many modern researchers to speculate that the entire Unicorn legend may have stemmed from sightings of a one horned creature like the rhinoceros by an individual who had never before seen such an animal.

    Many Unicorn legends suggest that there is only one way in which a hunter would ever be able to catch a Unicorn. This traditional method of hunting Unicorns involved the beast’s entrapment by a virgin. In one of Leonardo de Vinci’s notebooks he wrote that the Unicorn, through its intemperance and not knowing how to control itself, for the love it bears to fair maidens forgets its ferocity and wildness, and laying aside all fear it will go up to a seated damsel and go to sleep in her lap, and thus the hunters take it.



    visit - Unicorn gallery The famous late Gothic series of seven tapestry hangings, The Hunt of the Unicorn, which now hang in the Cloisters division of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, are considered by some to be the high point of European tapestry manufacturing. In this series, richly dressed noblemen, accompanied by huntsmen and hounds, pursue a Unicorn against a setting of buildings and gardens.

    They bring the animal to bay with the help of a maiden who traps it with her charms, appearing to kill it, and bring it back to the castle. In the last and most famous of these seven panels, entitled The Unicorn in Captivity, the Unicorn is shown alive again and happy, chained to a pomegranate tree surrounded by a circular fence in a field of flowers. The series was woven for an unknown patron in about 1500 in the Low Countries, probably Brussels or Liege.

    With so many accounts and world wide reports of the Unicorn, mainly from long ago, modern researchers have suggested a plethora of theories as to the true identity of the original Unicorn. As mentioned above some researchers have suggested that original Unicorn reports may have stemmed from encounters between Europeans and the rhinoceros. Humans who lived during the time of the last major Ice Age would have been quite familiar with the wooly rhinoceros; their legends of these beasts may have been pasted down through the generation eventually evolving into to what we know today as the Unicorn.

    Furthermore, Europeans and West Asians have been traveling to Sub Saharan Africa for as long as we have documented records. Also Chinese from as far back as the Han Dynasty, around 220 B.C., were traveling to East Africa leading some to speculate that these early travels may have all encountered the rhinoceros and, not known what it was, mistaken it for the Unicorn. In support of this theory, 13th century explorer Marco Polo claimed to have seen a Unicorn in Java, but his description, which can be found above, makes it clear to modern readers that he actually saw a Javanese rhinoceros.

    Another theory suggests that the Unicorn is based on a now extinct animal, sometimes called the Great Unicorn, known to science as the Elasmotherium, a huge Eurasian rhinoceros. Elasmotherium is thought to have looked a little something like a horse, but it had a large single horn protruding from its forehead. It is thought to have gone extinct at about the same time as the rest of the glacial age mega fauna, like the wooly rhinoceros and wooly mammoth, about 1.6 million years ago. However, according science writer Willy Ley and the Nordisk Familybook, published between 1876 and 1899, the animal may have survived long enough to be remembered in the legends of the Evenk people of Russia as a huge black bull with a single horn in its forehead.

    visit - Unicorn gallery There is also testimony by the medieval traveler Ibn Fadlan, who is usually considered a reliable source, which suggests that Elasmotherium may have survived into historical times, his testimony reads as follows:

    There is nearby a wide steppe, and there dwells, it is told, an animal smaller than a camel, but taller than a bull. Its head is the head of a ram, and its tail is a bull’s tail. Its body is that of a mule and its hooves are like those of a bull. In the middle of its head it has a horn, thick and round, and as the horn goes higher, it narrows until it is like a spearhead. Some of these horns grow to three or five ells, depending on the size of the animal. It thrives on the leaves of penof trees, which are excellent greenery. Whenever it sees a rider, it approaches and if the rider has a fast horse, the horse tries to escape by running fast, and if the beast overtakes them, it picks the rider out of the saddle with its horn, and tosses him in the air, and meets him with the point of the horn, and continues doing so until the rider dies. But it will not harm or hurt the horse in any way or manner.

    The locals seek it in the steppe and in the forest until they can kill it. It is done so: they climb the tall trees between which the animal passes. It requires several bowmen with poisoned arrows; and when the beast is in between them, they shoot and wound it unto its death. And indeed I have seen three big bowls shaped like Yemen seashells, that the king has, and he told me that they are made out of that animal’s horn.

    Even if the Elasmotherium is not the creature described by Ibn Fadlan, it only leads us back to the original theory an ordinary rhinoceros may have some relation to the Unicorn.

    Other animals suggested as possible sources of the original Unicorn legend include the following:

    The oryx, an antelope like animal with two long, thin horns projecting from its forehead. Some researchers have suggested that, seen from the side and from a distance, these two horns appear as one, though the horn projects backwards not forward as in the classic Unicorn, the oryx its self has a similar appears as a horse for a distance. These same researchers believe that travelers in Arabia could have derived tales of the Unicorn from these animals. Published in 1486, The Peregrinatio in terram sanctam was the first printed illustrated travel book. It describing a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and thence to Egypt by way of Mount Sinai. It featured many large woodcuts by Erhard Reuwich, who went on the trip, mostly detailed and accurate views of cities. The book also contained pictures of animals seen on the journey, including a crocodile, camel, and unicorn, presumably an oryx, which they could easily have seen on their route.

    The eland, a very large antelope like creature, thought to be somewhat mystical or spiritual perhaps at least partly because it would defend its self and others against lions and was able to kill these fearsome predators at a time when people only had slow acting poisoned arrows to defend themselves with. Eland are very frequently depicted in the rock art of the region, which implies that they were viewed as having a strong connection to the other world, and in several languages the word for eland and for dance is the same; significant because shamans used dance as their means of drawing power from the other world. Eland fat was used when mixing the pigments for these pictographs, and in the preparation of many medicines. This special regard for the eland may well have been picked up by early travelers. It is even rumored in the area of Cape Town one horned eland were known to occur naturally, perhaps as the result of a recessive gene.

    The narwhal, this ocean dwelling mammal has also been suggested as the source of the original Unicorn legends, not so much the live swimming version but skeletal remains which would have possessed the long narrow horn. It is not hard to imagine that a person coming across the skeletal remains of a narwhal may have pieced it back together in a way in which it would have looked nothing like the narwhal and could have taken on the appearance of a land animal. Unicorn horns often found in cabinets of curiosities in Medieval and Renaissance Europe were very often nothing more than the distinct straight spiral tusk of the narwhal. It is believed that the usual depiction of the Unicorn horn in art derives from the narwhal tusk.

    The domestic goat, a rare deformity of the generative tissues can cause the horns of the ordinary goat to become joined together, producing an animal which can look extraordinary; such an animal could be another possible inspiration for the original unicorn legends, especially those from ancient China which depict the Unicorn as being rather goat like in physical appearance.

    As you can see there have been more than enough theories as to the possible original identity of the Unicorn, though none of which really explain the magical characteristics of the beast, which are thought by most to be a by product of the human imagination. We may never really know what was behind the creation of the Unicorn legend and we must not forget about those who believe that the creature behind the Unicorn legend might just be an actual Unicorn, a magical creature who awaits the onset of good to return to its former place in the world.

    The Evidence
    There is currently no physical evidence to support the existence of the creature described in most Unicorn legends.

    The Sightings
    Adam first saw the Unicorn in the Garden of Eden; it was the first of the Earths creatures to be named by Adam this securing a special place over all the animals in the universe.

    It is said that almost 5,000 years ago a Unicorn appeared to give Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi the secrets of written language.

    In 2697 B.C. it is said that a Unicorn made an appearance in the garden of China’s Yellow Emperor, Huang Di.

    In about 2000 B.C. Chinese Emperor Yao is said to have had a run in with a Unicorn.

    In 551 B.C., Confucius' pregnant mother met a Unicorn in the woods. It gave her a small piece of jade and placed its head in her lap. She realized the importance of the event and knew it was a good omen from the gods.

    It is said that legendary philosopher Confucius once sighted a Unicorn.

    In the 3rd century B.C., the Macedonian general Alexander the Great boasted that in one of his conquests, he rode a Unicorn into battle.

    In the 1st century B.C, Roman Emperor Julius Caesar reported seeing a Unicorn in the deep forests of southwestern Germany.

    In the mid 1100's Prester John ruled over a vast Asian empire and was reputed to have a number of tame Unicorns.

    In the late 1200sItalian trader Marco Polo became famous for his accounts of travel in China and Southeast Asia. He even reported seeing a large Unicorn, almost as big as an elephant. His detailed description was almost certainly a rhinoceros, but the retelling of his tales and the illustrations that accompanied them usually made the Unicorn fit in with the traditional Western horse like creature.

    The Stats – (Where applicable)

    • Classification: Hybrid
    • Size: Reports vary from that of a goat to slightly smaller than an elephant
    • Weight: Unknown
    • Diet: Herbivore
    • Location: World Wide
    • Movement: Four legged walking
    • Environment: Forests, grasslands and plains
    Last edited by Frances, 7th March 2015 at 22:55.

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  11. #141
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    The Green Children Of Woolpit, Re-Visited.



    The Green Children Of Woolpit. This is a better article with extra and interesting information regarding the mystery.

    Source:- http://eclectariumshuker.blogspot.co...f-woolpit.html

    Article by Dr Karl Shuker.

    THE GREEN CHILDREN OF WOOLPIT - INVESTIGATING A MEDIEVAL MYSTERY

    If we are to believe the medieval chroniclers, during the Middle Ages Britain was a land not unaccustomed to the appearance of many extraordinary marvels and miracles - but few were stranger than the unheralded arrival in Woolpit of the green children.

    This extraordinary episode is believed to have taken place during the reign of either King Stephen (1135-1154 AD) or King Henry II (1154-1189 AD), both reigns occurring during an unstable time of great poverty and hardship for the ordinary masses, and it appears to have been first recorded by two monastic scholars, penning separate but closely corresponding versions during the early 1200s. One of these scholars was Ralph of Coggeshall, who, in 1207, was the abbot of a Benedictine abbey in the Essex village of Coggeshall. The relevant passage, from his Chronicon Anglicarum, was translated into English from its original Latin by Thomas Keightley in his own book, The Fairy Mythology (1884). The other scholar was a well-educated Augustinian monk from Yorkshire, known as William of Newburgh, who documented the episode in his Historia Rerum

    In both versions, the locality where the strangely-hued visitors appeared was named as Woolpit, a small village just a few miles to the east of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. 'Woolpit' is a corruption of 'Wolfpit', for in the Middle Ages wolves still existed in Britain, and on the outskirts of this particular village were a number of deep pits dating back to ancient times that were traditionally used for trapping these creatures. However, it is possible that on at least one occasion these pits ensnared - or released? - two much more exotic entities.


    Alongside Woolpit’s village name sign, depicting the green children and a wolf (Dr Karl Shuker)

    One day, some of the Woolpit villagers spotted two very unusual individuals near to the mouth of one of these pits. They seemed to be children - one was a girl, the other was a boy and somewhat younger in age. Both of them were dressed in unfamiliar-looking clothes, and spoke in a language that was unintelligible to the villagers - but by far the most bizarre characteristic of this peculiar pair was their colour. It was as if they had been skilfully fashioned from summer leaves or soft meadow grass, for just like their clothes, and even the strange hue of their eyes, their skin was green!



    The banner of St Mary’s Church, depicting the green children (Dr Karl Shuker)

    Totally bemused, the villagers decided to take these incongruous infants to someone whose elevated status and education would enable him to decide the best course of action to pursue regarding them. And so it was that the green children of Woolpit (whose original names appear never to have been recorded) were introduced to Sir Richard de Calne, a knight living at Wikes.

    Not surprisingly, Sir Richard was initially as perplexed as the villagers had been by the sight of these outlandish youngsters, who were weeping bitterly. Were they just frightened, or were they hungry too? There was only one way to find out. After doing what he could to try to console them, he then set out to discover their favourite food, by offering them as many different dishes as possible - but all to no avail. Every type of food placed before them was instantly rejected, and their anguished howls became ever louder.

    Finally, inspired more by desperation than deliberation, Sir Richard and his staff brought into the house some raw bean shoots - and to everyone's surprise the children immediately made it clear via non-verbal but no less evocative means that these were what they desired. When the shoots were handed to them, however, they amazed their observers by ignoring the bulging pods...and splitting open the stalks instead! Not surprisingly, they did not discover any beans, and so they hurled the shoots away in disgust and disappointment, until they were shown that the beans were contained in the pods. At once they began eating the beans, and from their evident delight it was clear that these were a familiar food to them.

    Indeed, for several weeks to come they would not eat anything else, surviving entirely upon an exclusive diet of beans. Eventually, however, the girl began to consume other foods too, but the boy refused to do so. Inevitably, he became ever weaker, and in less than a year he had died. His sister, conversely, survived and prospered, maturing as the years passed by into a normal young woman, whose skin gradually faded to a more typical shade. In due course, she married a man from King's Lynn, in southern Norfolk (and in some later accounts she then became known as Agnes Barre).

    Perhaps the most significant event in her acclimatisation was that she eventually learnt to speak English fairly fluently. At last, she would be able to shed some much-needed light upon the greatest mystery of all surrounding herself and her late brother - their origin. Where had these remarkable children come from?

    In reality, however, her testimony served only to deepen the mystery, which has now spanned over eight centuries without reaching a satisfactory conclusion. According to Keightley's translation of the green children's history as penned by Ralph of Coggeshall:

    "Being frequently asked about the people of her country, she asserted that the inhabitants, and all they had in that country, were of a green colour; and that they saw no sun, but enjoyed a degree of light like what is after sunset. Being asked how she came into this country with the aforesaid boy, she replied, that as they were following their flocks, they came to a certain cavern, on entering which they heard a delightful sound of bells; ravished by whose sweetness, they went for a long time wandering on through the cavern, until they came to its mouth. When they came out of it, they were struck senseless by the excessive light of the sun, and the unusual temperature of the air; and they thus lay for a long time. Being terrified by the noise of those who came on them, they wished to fly, but they could not find the entrance of the cavern before they were caught."

    Readers perusing the first portion of this excerpt may be forgiven for wondering whether I had slyly inserted a description of the Emerald City from L. Frank Baum's immortal children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). Certainly, there is an unexpected similarity between this fictional viridescent realm and the supposed origin of the green children - a parallel made even more intriguing by the fact that certain accounts of the Woolpit green children have actually claimed that they were transported to Woolpit by a whirlwind, just as Dorothy and her dog Toto were transported to Oz by a cyclone! Who knows - perhaps Baum was aware of the Woolpit episode, and incorporated a modified version of its theme within his book?

    Be that as it may (or may not!), it is important to note that the version of the green girl's testimony documented by William of Newburgh differs from that of the Abbot Ralph, inasmuch as he claims that the villagers had found the two children wandering through the fields around Woolpit, rather than at the mouth of one of the wolfpits. A third chronicler from this period, Gervase of Tilbury, made the same claim, and his account also amplified some of the details given in those of the other two writers:

    "We are folk of St Martin's Land; for he is the chief saint among us. We know not where the land is, and remember only that one day we were feeding our father's flock in the field when we heard a great noise like bells, as when, at St Edmunds [Bury St Edmunds], they all peal together. And on a sudden we were both caught up in the spirit and found ourselves in your harvest field. Among us no sun rises, nor is there open sunshine, but such a twilight as here goes before the rising and setting of the sun. Yet there is a land of light to be seen not far from us, but cut off from us by a stream of great width."

    Could Woolpit be the land of light, and could the stream be a river - or even a sea?

    Faced with such a bewildering if not bewitching tale, it is hardly surprising that down through the centuries the mystery of Woolpit's green children has attracted a diverse array of theories and proposed explanations - ranging from the mundane to the metaphysical.

    The most striking feature of the story is the green colour of the children's clothes, eyes, and - most especially - their skin, which has attracted appreciable attention from folklorists, and for good reason. Green is the colour of Faerie, of Nature, and, in Celtic mythology, of Death. Several well-known examples and associations readily spring to mind - could the green children of Woolpit constitute yet another one?



    Ornamental wall plaque depicting the Green Man (Dr Karl Shuker)

    Prominent among these is a mysterious entity known as Jack-in-the-Green or the Green Man, depicted as a shaggy humanoid figure covered not in hair or fur but in sprouting leaves instead, and sometimes merely as a foliate head. He is portrayed in many church carvings and decorations, including ornate misericords, tympana, fonts, tombs, roof bosses, and screens, and is also preserved in the name and signs of many pubs and inns. Variously classed as a pagan god, a tree spirit, or the personification of fertility and the renewal of life in spring, the Green Man's complex symbolism as well as his longstanding association in art and religion is vigorously examined in William Anderson's fascinating book Green Man (1990).



    Another Green Man wall plaque (Dr Karl Shuker)

    Equally noteworthy, and possibly allied to the Green Man, is the enigmatic Green Knight, as featured in a classic if anonymous 14th-Century poem, 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'. It tells of a mysterious knight with green skin, wearing green armour, and riding a green horse who arrived uninvited one day at the hall of King Arthur and challenged his knights to trade blows with him. Only one, Sir Gawain, accepted the strange visitor's challenge, and promptly chopped off his head - but instead of dying, the Green Knight merely picked up his severed head and told Gawain to meet him in a year's time so that he could return the favour. When Gawain did so, his bravery was rewarded by the Green Knight's failure to chop off his head - after which the knight revealed himself to be Sir Bertilak, at whose castle Gawain had been staying while
    awaiting his potentially fatal meeting with the Green Knight.



    Gawain and the Green Knight (artist unknown to me)

    This eerie tale has a direct link with Faerie, because it transpired that Sir Bertilak was transformed into the Green Knight by the enchantment of King Arthur's half-sister, Morgan Le Fay, and as with so many fairy links the colour embodying the enchantment was green. Green is, in any event, the favourite colour for fairy clothing, and some fairy beings, particularly elves, are often described as green-hued.



    Green is the colour of Faerie and fairies

    Even the land of Faerie as described in traditional folktales bears a degree of resemblance to the Woolpit green girl's account of St Martin's Land. While journeying through Wales in 1188 AD, Giraldus Cambrensis documented one such story - concerning the visit to Faerie by a boy called Elidor - in his subsequent narrative, Itinerarium Cambriae. Translated into English by R.C. Hoare, it includes the following description of Faerie:

    "...a most beautiful country, adorned with rivers and meadows, woods and plains, but obscure, and not illuminated with the full light of the sun. All the days were cloudy, and the nights extremely dark, on account of the absence of the moon and stars."

    Nor should we forget the legendary outlaw Robin Hood, dressed in Lincoln Green and sharing the sylvan seclusion of Sherwood Forest with Maid Marian and their band of Merry Men - for Robin and Marian are sometimes likened to or even directly homologised with the King and Queen of Faerie.



    Robin Hood - Louis Rhead (1912)

    Particularly pertinent to the folklore facet in seeking an explanation for the green foundlings of Woolpit is their especial liking for beans. According to ancient Celtic tradition, beans are the food of the dead - the sole sustenance of resurrected corpses and ghosts - thus enhancing the unworldly aura already encompassing these weird children.

    The Middle Ages were extremely credulous, unscientific times brimming over with portents, misconceptions, exaggerations, and superstitious fancies of every kind. Hence it is a very hazardous task attempting to distinguish between fact and folklore, hearsay and truth when analysing accounts from this period. The green children of Woolpit may be nothing more than an imaginative rumour or fairytale given a semblance of substance by uncritical or distorted chronicling, but it is unlikely that this theory can ever be adequately tested.



    'Family Tree' (Robert M Williams)

    A very different and far more dramatic explanation was proffered by Harold T. Wilkins, an investigator of unexplained anomalies. In his book Mysteries: Solved and Unsolved (1959), Wilkins boldly proposed that the green children may have entered our world from a parallel version (existing in a separate dimensional plane but directly alongside our own), by accidentally passing through some form of interdimensional 'window' bridging the two.

    Other writers have offered the equally radical scenario of a vast but gloomy subterranean world linked to our own by a worldwide labyrinth of interconnecting tunnels, and inhabited by a mysterious race of advanced humanoids, two of whose children accidentally became lost in one such tunnel and eventually wandered out into our own sunlit world above-ground.

    Another dramatic proposal is that the green children are extraterrestrials. As long ago as 1651, Robert Burton opined in his tome Anatomy of Melancholy that they may have come from Venus or Mars. Much more recently, the extraterrestrial hypothesis has been pursued enthusiastically by astronomer Duncan Lunan, assistant curator at Scotland’s Airdrie Observatory. Based upon the children’s description of their twilit St Martin’s land, and the great river separating it from a luminous land beyond, Lunan has speculated that they may have originated from a planet whose one side permanently faces the sun and whose other is permanently cloaked in darkness with a twilit zone sandwiched between them. As for the great river, Lunan has postulated that this is actually a huge canal that encircles the entire planet and is used for planet-wide thermoregulatory purposes. He believes that they must have reached Earth by teleportation, and has suggested that this was accompanied by a bright auroral display, thereby interpreting the children’s description of a sweet sound of bells as a visual rather than an aural stimulus.

    Bearing in mind, however, the claim by both contemporary chroniclers of the green children episode that once the two began eating normal food their green skin colour slowly vanished, and that the girl grew up into a typical-looking woman and married locally (there are even claims that some modern-day descendants of her lineage exist today, including one branch in the USA), it seems unlikely that they belonged to some alien species.



    The Emerald City, from L. Frank Baum's children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)

    As an advocate of Ockham's Razor - a philosophical maxim stating that the simplest answer is usually the likeliest, provided that it fits all of the available facts - I personally prefer the rather more prosaic but much more tangible explanation offered by researcher Paul Harris, with whom I have corresponded at length concerning the history of Woolpit's green children. Paul has studied this fascinating case in considerable depth, and has presented his illuminating findings in a detailed Fortean Times article (spring 1991) and subsequently elsewhere too (see my own book Dr Shuker's Casebook, 2008, for full details).

    Harris speculated that the twilit world of St Martin's Land and the underground cavern through which the green children came to Woolpit may owe more to local geography than to parallel worlds and interdimensional windows. Just over a mile north of Bury St Edmunds is the village of Fornham St Martin. Remembering that the girl referred to Bury St Edmunds merely as "St Edmunds", perhaps "St Martin's Land" was her own abbreviation for Fornham St Martin. If so, her story is no longer so opaque to interpretation.

    As pointed out by Harris, northwest of Woolpit and separated from it by the river Lark are the thick woodlands of Thetford Forest, at the centre of which are numerous Neolithic flint mines. Looking out from this dim, shadowy region towards the more open, and hence sunnier, countryside surrounding Woolpit on the far side of the Lark certainly corresponds closely to the scene described by the green girl with regard to the "land of light" visible from St Martin's Land and separated from the latter by "a stream of great width". And the mysterious underground cavern leading to Woolpit could be any of the flint mine tunnels running from Thetford Forest and emerging on the opposite side of the Lark.



    Babes in the Wood – 1879 woodcut by Randolph Caldecott

    Prior to the reign of Henry II, there had been a significant influx of Flemish weavers and merchants into Eastern England, but these were severely persecuted by Henry, culminating in a massacre of the Flemish at a battle in 1173 near Bury St Edmunds. Paul deems it very plausible that the green children were Flemish children from Fornham St Martin whose parents had been killed, and who had fled away northward into the dense woodland terrain of Thetford Forest (whose dark shadowed interior would have reminded them of twilight), but survived there for a time in a half-starved state (recalling the traditional 'Babes in the Wood' fairy tale) before wandering out among the roaming livestock of farmers and later becoming even more disoriented within this region's maze of subterranean mining tunnels - leading them ever further away from their home territory. Eventually, while wandering aimlessly through one of these tunnels, they came by chance within earshot of the bells of Woolpit's village church, and after following the familiar sound of pealing church bells they finally emerged from the tunnel, confused and dazzled by the sudden glare of the outside world's bright sunshine.



    St Mary's Church, Woolpit (Dr Karl Shuker)

    To substantiate this proposed scenario, Harris offered the following three thought-provoking pieces of corroborating evidence:

    Firstly: in medieval times, villages were extremely insular - so much so that villagers hardly ever travelled outside their own neighbourhood. Consequently, even the dialects spoken by villagers from nearby villages were very distinct from one another. This meant that the dialect of anyone visiting Woolpit from a fairly distant, non-local village, such as Fornham St Martin, for instance, would have been virtually unintelligible (and entirely so if the children had been Flemish) - just like the green children's speech, in fact.

    Secondly: there is a type of anaemia known as chlorosis that confers a green tinge to the skin of sufferers. It is caused by poor eating - and is therefore a disease to which young children lost and starving in the outdoors would be particularly susceptible. Significantly, chlorosis can be cured if the diet of sufferers is improved - and the green girl's skin did indeed become pink after she had begun to eat a wider range of foods.

    (A related proposal supported by some researchers is that the green children had been abandoned or orphaned as youngsters and thereafter reared by wolves. Because these feral children would have lived in caves with the wolves away from sunlight and would probably have had a very poor diet, they may have suffered from chlorosis, turning their skin green. Moreover, in a Daily Mail letter of 2 July 1997 discussing this theory, Laraine Bates of Brome, Suffolk, stated that after appearing at Woolpit both children were said to howl at a full moon and were sometimes seen running on all fours.)

    Thirdly: a centuries-old East Anglian legend tells of how two young children, heirs to the estate of their dead parents, were poisoned with arsenic and then abandoned by their evil guardian in the depths of Wayland Wood, in the vicinity of Thetford Forest. If this were more than a legend, it could conceivably explain the origin of the green children - and surely it is more than just a coincidence that one of the effects of arsenic poisoning, which is not always lethal, is that the victim's skin turns green.

    Speaking of coincidences: Over the years, several writers have alluded to a mysterious Spanish episode that duplicates almost exactly the events discussed here for Woolpit. A pair of young children, the elder of the two a girl, but both with green skin, are discovered at the mouth of a cave by villagers from nearby Banjos in Catalonia. They are taken to the home of a nobleman called Señor Ricardo da Calno (a name remarkably similar to Sir Richard de Calne!), who cannot tempt them to eat anything - except for beans. The girl gradually learns Spanish, and announces that she and her brother come from a permanently twilit land separated by a wide river from a much sunnier country.

    Indeed, the only significant differences between the two stories are that the Banjos version is set in the 19th Century (the children allegedly appeared in August 1887), and the girl as well as the boy eventually dies.

    Sussex-based researcher Frank Preston has carried out several enquiries in an attempt to validate this story, but all without success. Similarly, when the British Council Institute in Barcelona conducted their own investigations on his behalf, they too drew a complete blank. After methodically searching and contacting Spanish town hall, library, and museum archives, and perusing all of the relevant newspapers for August 1887, they were unable to locate a single reference to this singular incident. Clearly, therefore, it was a complete fabrication, evidently inspired by the Woolpit history - not that this is too surprising a revelation really...bearing in mind that the village of Banjos does not exist either!

    But what about the green children of Woolpit? Today, more than 800 years later, they are still fondly recalled here, commemorated in a village sign and also depicted in the banner of Woolpit's church. Harris's theory remains the most convincing explanation put forward so far, but without any unequivocal physical evidence to examine we can never be absolutely certain of the truth behind this small Suffolk village's most celebrated visitors.

    Yet assuming that they did indeed exist, and had inexplicably found themselves far from their home (wherever that may have been), a second link with L. Frank Baum's masterpiece The Wizard of Oz readily comes to mind. After all, their thoughts on finding themselves in Woolpit were no doubt akin to those voiced aloud by Judy Garland's Dorothy: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!" Nor is that the last of the Baum links.



    Title page from the first edition of L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)

    Several years ago, I visited Woolpit to see for myself the various relics there commemorating the history of the green children. These include the tall, elegant village name sign standing not far from St Mary's Church that depicts the two children, the church, and a wolf; the colourful banner of the church that also depicts them; and a scroll inside the church on which the history of the green children is enscribed. Walking through St Mary’s Church, moreover, I was surprised to find a most unexpected correspondence between Oz and Woolpit.



    A mythological winged creature carved at the end of a pew in St Mary's Church, Woolpit (Dr Karl Shuker)

    The church contains numerous carvings of animals, some real and others mythological, but one of the most startling of these, perched at the end of a pew, is an extraordinary composite beast that looks remarkably like a flying monkey!



    The winged monkey carved on a pew inside St Mary’s Church, Woolpit (Dr Karl Shuker)

    In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her friends were, of course, pursued and harried by a flock of flying monkeys sent by the Wicked Witch of the West. Meticulously carved, with every feather beautifully delineated, this mini-masterpiece may be an opinicus, i.e. a griffin-related hybrid, sometimes combining a simian face with a lion’s body and the plumed wings of an eagle – yet another bizarre being finding shelter in the magical village .
    Frances.
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    Aeolian Harp Or Wind Harp.



    Source :- http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/aeolian_harp

    Aeolian harp

    The aeolian harp (also æolian harp or wind harp) is a musical instrument that is "played" by the wind, which initiates harmonic resonances to create the harp's often eerie sound. Also known as the harmonic harp and spirit harp, the aeolian harp originated in ancient Greece. The instrument was also found in the cultures of India and China. German Jesuit scholar and renowned Egyptologist Athanasius Kircher (1601–1680) is credited with having constructed the first modern aeolian harp in 1650.



    Aeolian Harp at the Hohenbaden Castle, Baden Baden, Germany.

    The aeolian harp takes its name from the Greek god of the wind, Aeolus, since its other-worldly sounds are initiated by the movement of the wind over its strings. The instruments became very popular as household ornaments during the Romantic Era, and are still hand-crafted today. The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Americans Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau all found the aeolian harp to possess unique spiritual qualities.

    The aeolian harp became popular again in twentieth century music with composers such as Henry Cowell, who experimented with innovative techniques in sound production. They have also found a place in contemporary music recordings. Some contemporary aeolian harps are made in the form of monumental metal sound sculptures located on the roof of a building or a hilltop where there is abundant wind to generate sound.

    Design and operation

    Aeolian harps can vary in terms of their basic design. The traditional aeolian harp is essentially a wooden box including a sounding board with 10 or 12 strings stretched lengthwise across two bridges. It is often placed in a slightly opened window where the wind can blow across the strings to produce sounds. The strings can be made of different materials or thicknesses. They can all be tuned to the same note or can be tuned to different notes to form chords. There are also larger aeolian harps that stand upright in order to catch the wind with greater intensity. The intensity of the wind crossing the strings determines the variety of tones produced. Although it will not directly affect their pitches, wind intensity does affect harmonic resonances dramatically, creating surprising variations in the instrument's sound.



    The sound of the aeolian harp depends on construction, tuning, and the strength of the wind passing over the strings. It can range from a barely audible hum to a loud scream. If the strings are tuned to different notes, sometimes only one tone is heard and sometimes chords are formed, producing a haunting effect ranging from calmly spiritual to frighteningly eerie.

    The wind vibrating the strings produces pitches of the overtone series or harmonics—barely audible higher pitches contained within a musical tone. The presence of these faint pitches is what produces the tonal characteristics of a particular musical instrument. As wind crosses the strings of the aeolian harp, it sets the strings in motion and results in a series of harmonics: most commonly the third, the twelfth, and the upper octave intoning over the fundamental note in the overtone series and acting as a drone.

    The harp is driven by an aeroelastic effect, known as the von Karman vortex street effect. The motion of the wind across a string causes a periodic vortex downstream and which causes the string to vibrate. The merest motion of the wind across a string forces the air on the leading side to move faster than that on the trailing side. This causes the pressure ahead of the string to be slightly less than that behind, pushing the string further to the side, until the restoring force arising from deflection halts and reverses the motion. Similar to the intentional "feedback" effect in some amplified electric guitars, in aeolian harps, this can multiply the sound to dramatic proportions.

    The same effect can sometimes be observed in overhead utility lines, which produce a hum sometimes fast enough to be heard or slow enough to be seen. Often mistaken as caused by electricity, the sound is actually caused by the vibration of the wire, similar to that found in stringed musical instruments. A stiff rod will perform in a similar manner. A non-telescoping automobile radio antenna can be a dramatic exhibitor of this effect. The effect can happen in other media as well, such as in the anchor line of a ship in a river.

    Aeolian harps in music

    The Etude in A flat major for piano (1836) by Frédéric Chopin (Op. 25, no. 1) is sometimes called the "Aeolian Harp" etude, a nickname given it by Robert Schumann. The piece features a delicate, tender, and flowing melody in the fifth finger of the pianist's right hand, over a background of rapid pedaled arpeggios. One of Sergei Lyapunov's 12 études d'exécution transcendante, Op. 11 No.9, is named by the author "Harpes éoliennes" (aeolian harps). In this virtuoso piece, written between 1897 and 1905, the tremolo accompaniment seems to imitate the sounding of the instrument. Henry Cowell's Aeolian Harp (1923) was one of the first piano pieces ever to feature extended techniques on the piano which included plucking and sweeping the pianist's hands directly across the strings of the piano.

    In 1972, Chuck Hancock and Harry Bee recorded a giant aeolian harp built by the members of a commune on a hilltop in California. United Artists released their double LP entitled, The Wind Harp—Song From The Hill, part of which was used to created otherworldly sound effects in the movie The Exorcist. In 2003, a large aeolian harp was constructed at Burning Man, an annual event held in the Black Rock Desert, in Northern Nevada. Australian artist, composer and sound sculptor Alan Lamb has also created and recorded several very large scale aeolian harps, including one consisting of long spans of telegraph wire on 12 acres in rural Baldivis south of Perth, England. In 2006, Italian Classical/New Age composer, Oreobambo, used the aeolian harp on his CD, Energy Journeys.

    The aeolian harp in literature


    Aeolus was the Greek god of the winds and ruler of the island of Aeolia. In Homer's Odyssey, Aeolus provides the wandering Odysseus favorable winds to aid him on his journey.

    English Romantic poet and philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), immortalized the instrument in his poem of 1795 The Eolian Harp, in which he references the harp and wind as being single aspects of the same universe and origin coming together in a harmonious fashion.

    And that simplest Lute,
    How by the desultory breeze caress'd,
    Like some coy maid half-yielding to her lover,
    It pours such sweet upbraiding, as must needs
    Tempt to repeat the wrong ! And now, its strings
    Boldlier swept, the long sequacious notes
    Over delicious surges sink and rise,
    Such a soft floating witchery of sound
    As twilight Elfins make, when they at eve
    Voyage on gentle gales from Faery-Land,
    Where Melodies round honey-dropping flowers,
    Footless and wild, like birds of Paradise,
    Nor pause, nor perch, hovering on untam'd wing!
    American poet Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) wrote a poem entitled Rumors from an Aeolian Harp and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) also referenced the Aeolian Harp in several of his writings, including The Maiden Song of the Aeolian Harp.

    According to Cynthia A. Cavanaugh of Kean University, late in his creative life, Emerson (who owned an aeolian harp), viewed the instrument as "more than an instrument; it becomes a symbol of beauty, wisdom, and divine harmony in his poetry." She further asserts: "The taint of human impurity does not touch the Aeolian harp because the music of the harp is produced by nature's breeze. Emerson once told Moncure Conway that, 'A single breath of spring fragrance coming into his open window and blending with strains of his Aeolian harp had revived in him memories and reanimated thoughts that had perished under turmoil of the times." In the Maiden Song of the Aeolian Harp one of the entries in his last book of poetry, Selected Poems, published in 1876, Emerson wrote from the point of view of the personified aeolian harp itself, who declines to be played by a human hand."
    Frances.
    Last edited by Frances, 26th March 2015 at 10:45.

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    Making An Aeolian Harp.


    Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUsnR4ifqNs


    Uploaded April 25th 2011. Video 14:39.

    Lovely video by Stan Hershank, showing the basic method of making an Aeolian Harp.
    You get to see where to place it and hear the tones being played by the earths breath.
    Frances.
    Last edited by Frances, 8th March 2015 at 23:42.

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    Are One World Trade Center's "eerie noises" Infrasound?

    Link to an article, Are One World Trade Center's "eerie noises" Infrasound?

    Source :- http://www.suspicious0bserverscollec...ses-infrasound

    A local news article published by PIX11 on December 3rd, 2013 points out an important anecdote, "Animal New York reports that residents began hearing the strange howling, whistling sounds during Hurricane Sandy last year.

    A 2012 article from The Daily Mail Online, 'Superstorm Sandy turned World Trade Center into an Aeolian harp...' used an interesting anecdote, "The storm, which included gusts of 80 mph, briefly turned the tower in an enormous concrete version of an Aeolian harp, a musical instrument played by the wind.

    This article contains two very short videos of the sound recordings.
    Frances.
    Last edited by Frances, 20th July 2015 at 17:31.

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    The Disembodied Hairy Hand.



    Source :- http://www.paranormalsoup.com/forums...howtopic=41276

    The Disembodied Hairy Hand.

    I think I must have been around the age of ten, when my dad first recounted a terrifying experience he had whilst playing on the street with friends, as a child. The story had the air of eeriness and mystery to it, and the tale quickly glued itself into my mind, feeding my imagination over the years.

    It happened back in London, in the early 1950’s. My dad, Roger, met up with some friends during school holidays, and would often mess about in town, wondering about, buying magazines, exchanging sweets. It was during one particular day that he was in town, far from home, and began to feel the urge to use the toilet. Taking the long walk back home to take a pee didn’t seem so enticing, so he headed over to the nearest public toilet whilst his friends waited outside.

    I’m guessing it was much like any other public toilet – smelly, dirty, walls coated in colourful graffiti. My dad stepped in to what he presumed to be an empty toilet: all of the cubicle doors appeared to be open, from what he recalls. He stepped inside one. Without being detailed – my dad used the toilet. Whilst he was in there, he heard someone close one of the toilet doors next to him. Unperturbed – after all, why shouldn’t someone else come in and use the facility? – my dad flushed, let himself out, and began washing his hands at the sink.

    It was whilst he was doing this that he felt something grab his ankle from behind. He spun around, startled, and looked down. What he saw frightened him: It was an extremely large hand, the skin looked almost grey, and there was hair across the back of the hand. It was reaching out, from beneath the locked cubicle door, and gabbing firmly the back of my dad’s ankle and leg, trying to pull him.
    Unnerved and shocked, he shook his leg free of the large, inhuman looking hand, and ran from the toilets, terrified. He fled past his friends, saying he needed to go home. He never returned to that particular area again. He never forgot the episode.

    My dad, all those years later, never did feel able to explain away the experience. Of course, time can distort memory, and certainly in childhood, one’s imagination can flee to places of unreality in the blink of an eye. Yet my dad feels absolutely certain about what he saw – and attests strongly to the realistic appearance of the devilish hand that tried to grab him.

    My dad is of a sceptical nature, I trusted he was telling me his experience to the best of his ability and with the details that his memory could muster.

    It was something I never forgot myself. It was when I was a bit older, that I started hearing more about occurrences like this. Apparently, a being known as “Hairy Hands” has made somewhat a name for itself/himself in the UK.
    Most of the account springs from Devon, in a place called Dartmoor. Miles of fields and long stretches of roads make up most of what is known as Dartmoor – it is quiet, except for the lounging wildlife strewn across the greenery. It is desolate, far from busy towns.

    There have been reports over the years of people who have been driving their vehicle across this countryside and finding a pair of disembodied hairy hands appear before them, only to take control of the steering wheel. Due to the loss of control, it was reported that cars would veer off the road and drivers were shaken up from the ensuing road accident.
    Frances.
    Last edited by Frances, 26th March 2015 at 10:51.

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    The Hairy Hands Of Dartmoor.

    Source :- http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/hairy_hands.htm

    Imaging the year is 1925 and it is a dark winters night, the sky is clear and the air is cold, a frost is starting to bite at the whitening verge side. You and your partner are driving along the B3212 between Postbridge and Two bridges after visiting friends in Moretonhampstead. This old turnpike road was once known as the 'Carters Road' because a man called Carter built it.

    The car is freezing and to keep out the moorland chill you both have heavy coats and thick gloves. On the left the moon is peering up over Arch tor and the combination of it's yellowish beams and the dim car headlights a pair of fiery eyes are gleaming in the middle of the road. As you get nearer a brown hunched figure stands transfixed, those blood red eyes just stare deep into your soul. Your partner screams and you grab the brake, the heavy rubber tyres slide across the icy surface. Seconds seem like minutes as the vehicle glides gracefully sidewards along the bumpy road and stops just short of the static monster of the night.

    Gradually your racing heart slows down and your senses return, and there a red deer, transfixed with fear in the glare of the headlights, stands quivering. Your partner is not sure whether to laugh or cry, the deer regains its wits and gracefully bounds off towards Archerton Bog, the swishing of the icy grass is the only sound that betrays the path of the animal.


    If it was not so cold you would take off your gloves and light a cigarette, but there are many miles to go before you sleep so onwards speeds the little car. The headlights pick out the small Cherrybrook Bridge in the distance and you can see the sharp right hand bend leading into it. Knowing the road is icy you gently apply the brakes and select your course, allowing for the hard granite parapet of the bridge. Suddenly and for no reason the car sharply veers to the left hand side of the road, you grip the wheel tighter and notice a pair of severed hands clamped around it. No matter how hard you try to force the car back onto the road the hands stubbornly steer it towards the verge.

    A sickening jolt announces that the car has just left the road, this is followed by a nerve grating screeching sound as the willow branches scratch along the side of the vehicle. Eventually the car crashes to a halt, steam billows hissing up into the cold night air and there is silence, a stomach churning silence. Nervously you glance at the steering wheel those putrid, ghostly hands have vanished as quickly as they appeared. You check your partner, she is as white as the big moon that is hanging over the moor, the smell of hot oily water and burning rubber flares your nostrils... Congratulations you have just met the 'Hairy Hands of Dartmoor'!

    Some time around the early 1900's a series of accidents were reported along the stretch of the B3212 road which runs from above Postbridge to Two Bridges. Cyclists said how suddenly the handlebars of their bikes were wrenched out of their hands, forcing the bike into the ditch. Pony and traps were also forced off the road and onto the verge. Drivers of cars and motor coaches were experiencing the same occurrences.

    In 1921 Dr Helby from Princetown had his motorcycle and side car suddenly forced out of control. His two children were tossed out of the sidecar and sadly the doctor was killed. Not long after this tragic event and Army Officer was injured when his motorcycle was driven off the road, he lived to tell the tale and the one he told was that of muscular, hairy hands clamping over his and forcing the bike into the verge. The Daily Mail soon picked up the story and the ghostly events became headline news. The local authorities sent engineers to investigate and repairs were made to the road.


    In the 1920's a woman staying in a caravan parked in the ruins of Powder Mills was woken one night and saw a hairy hand creeping up the window, she made the appropriate sign of the cross and the dismembered limb vanished.
    A car was then found upturned in the ditch with its driver dead at the wheel, the cause of the accident was never established. To this present day there are still reports of either spectral hands grabbing the steering wheel or of an evil presence inside the car which in some cases leads to erratic steering.
    Frances.
    Last edited by Frances, 26th March 2015 at 10:54.

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    Shadow People.



    Source :- http://liparanormalinvestigators.com/lipi_shadows.shtml

    Shadow People.

    There's a growing interest in the phenomenon of shadow people. What are they? Ghosts? Interdimensional beings? Time travelers? Something else?

    "WHAT WAS THAT?" You were sitting comfortably on your sofareading the latest issue of FATE in the dim light when movement across the room caught your attention. It seemed dark and shadowy, but there was nothing there. You returned to your reading - and a moment later there it was again. You looked up quickly this time and saw the fleeting but distinctly human shape of the shadow pass quickly over the far wall... and disappear.

    What was that? Some natural shadow? Your heightened imagination? A ghost? Or was it something that seems to be a spreading phenomenon - apparitions that are coming to be known as "shadow people" or "shadow beings." Perhaps this is an old phenomenon with a new name that is now being discussed more openly, in part thanks to the Internet. Or maybe it's a phenomenon that, for some reason, is manifesting with greater frequency and intensity now.

    Those who are experiencing and studying the shadow people phenomenon say that these entities almost always used to be seen out of the corner of the eye and very briefly. But more and more, people are beginning to see them straight on and for longer periods of time. Some experiencers testify that they have even seen eyes, usually red, on these shadow beings.

    The mysterious sightings have become a hot topic of conversion in paranormal chat rooms, message boards and websites, and it is given widespread attention on paranormal talk radio.

    What are shadow people and where do they come from? Several theories have been offered.

    THE IMAGINATION

    The explanation we get from skeptics and mainstream science - and who are usually people who have never experienced the shadow people phenomenon - is that it is nothing more than the active human imagination. It's our minds playing tricks on us... our eyes seeing things in a fraction of a second that aren't really there - illusions... real shadows caused by passing auto headlights, or some similar explanation. And without a doubt, these explanations probably can account for some if not many experiences. The human eye and mind are easily fooled. But can they account for all cases?

    GHOSTS

    To call these entities ghosts demands first a definition of what we mean by ghosts. (See the article: Ghosts: What Are They?) But by almost any definition, shadow people are somewhat different than ghost phenomena. Whereas ghost apparitions are almost always a misty white, vaporish or have a decidedly human form and appearance (very often with discernable "clothing"), shadow beings are much darker and more shadow-like. In general, although the shadow people often do have a human outline or shape, because they are dark, the details of their appearance is lacking. This is in contrast to many ghost sightingsin which the witness can describe the ghost's facial features, style of clothing and other details. The one detail most often noted in some shadow being sightings are their glowing red eyes.

    DEMONS OR OTHER SPIRIT ENTITIES

    The dark countenance and malevolent feelings that are often reported in association with these creatures has led some researchers to speculate that they may be demonic in nature. If they are demons, we have to wonder what their purpose or intent is in letting themselves be seen in this manner. Is it merely to frighten?

    ASTRAL BODIES

    One interesting idea suggests that shadow people are the shadows or essences of people who are having out-of-body experiences. According to Jerry Gross, an author, lecturer and teacher about astral travel, we all travel out of the bodywhen we are asleep. Perhaps, this theory says, we are seeing the ephemeral astral bodies of these twilight travelers.

    TIME TRAVELERS

    People from our own future, another idea states, could have found the means to travel to the past - our time. However they are able to accomplish this incredible feat, perhaps in that state they appear to us merely as passing shadows as they observe the events of our timeline.

    INTERDIMENSIONAL BEINGS

    Even mainstream science is fairly convinced that there are dimensions other than the three we inhabit. And if these other dimensions exist, who or what (if anything) inhabits them? Some theorists say that these dimensions exist parallel and very close to our own, although invisible to us. And if there are inhabitants in these other dimensions, it is possible that they have found a way to intrude on our dimension and become, at least partially, visible? If so, they could very well appear as shadows. It has long been held by psychics and other sensitives that beings on other planes of existence are of different "vibrations." Science is beginning to look at reality, on a quantum level, in the same way - that particles of the smallest size exist as vibrations. Perhaps, some theorize, the vibrations of our existence are beginning to mesh with those of another dimension, which accounts for the increase in such phenomena as ghosts, shadow people and possibly aliens.

    ALIENS

    The alien and abduction phenomena are so bizarre that it's no surprise that extraterrestrials are suspects as the shadow people. Abductees have reported in many cases that the alien grays seem to be able to pass through walls and closed windows, and to appear and disappear abruptly, among other otherworldly talents. Perhaps, too, they can go about their alien agenda disguised in the shadows.

    There's a good deal of overlapping among the above ideas, of course. Aliens and ghosts could be interdimensional beings, or aliens could be time travelers - and some believe demons are responsible for all of these disturbing phenomena.

    There is no way to prove or disprove any theories about a phenomenon that is so mysterious, that happens so quickly and without warning. Science finds it virtually impossible to catalog or study such phenomena in any methodical way. All we can do, at present, is to document personal experiences and try to piece together what the shadow people phenomenon might be. Perhaps it's an old mystery becoming more recognizable... perhaps it represents a doorway to and from different planes of existence... or perhaps it's just shadows.
    Frances.
    Last edited by Frances, 26th March 2015 at 10:58.

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    The Hat Man.



    Source :- http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/1...f-the-hat-man/

    Article by Nick Redfern.

    Beware of the Hat Man.

    A couple of nights ago I finished reading the new book from Heidi Hollis, The Hat Man: The True Story of Evil Encounters. This is a fascinating book that deserves to be read by students of various areas of research, including UFOs, hauntings, alien abductions, demonology, other realms of existence, the afterlife, and much more, too, including the Men in Black - the latter being an issue I’ll return to later.

    I have known Heidi since 2005 when we took part in a week-long filming for a never-aired television show on the Roswell affair of 1947. I also know Heidi to be a skilled writer and researcher, and someone who knows how to grab the attention of her readers and write in a fashion that is both informative and entertaining. And, with that said, onto Heidi’s latest release.

    The Hat Man is a book that is as illuminating as it is disturbing. Across its 240 pages it tells of the rise, development, and spreading phenomenon of the creepy character of the book’s title. And Heidi – as a result of her research, writings, radio shows, and willingness to help people – has become the undeniable focal point for reports of the Hat Man.

    All of this brings us to the most important question of all: who, or what, is the Hat Man? Well, that’s a very good question. Put simply, an untold number of people, dating back to an untold period of time, have reported encounters with what is clearly a malevolent entity with intentions that are not good – not in the slightest.

    On some occasions the Hat Man appears in shadowy form (not unlike the infamous Shadow People – to whom the Hat Man is almost certainly related, even if we’re not sure why). On many occasions, however, the Hat Man appears in regular, human form, sporting a black beard and a black suit, and wearing a long overcoat or a cloak – almost always black, too.

    Most noticeable about this creepy figure is, of course, his hat. Sometimes, it’s a fedora, other times it’s an old style top hat. Occasionally, it’s more like a cowboy hat. But, regardless of the kind of hat, it’s always present.

    Many of the encounters occur while the victim is in a distinct altered state – that of sleeping. Nightmarish accounts of terrifying visitations, in the early hours of the morning, from the Hat Man abound in the pages of Heidi’s book. None of them are positive. All of them are negative. The Hat Man appears to be attracted to or provokes (maybe, even, both) bad luck, misfortune, ill-health, and even death. Soul-stealing may be one of the calling cards of the horror in the hat.

    What makes the Hat Man so difficult to pin down – in terms of what he is and what he represents – is that he appears in numerous situations. Those who have dabbled with Ouija boards have received ominous visits. As have alien abductees who have reported seeing the man in connection to the so-called “Grays” and “Mantis”-type aliens. People whose lives have taken bad turns find themselves plagued by the Hat Man.

    Even more ominous, the Hat Man appears to be attracted to certain families – several generations will report sightings of this grim and devious thing. And if that was not enough, Heidi tells of how the Hat Man intruded upon her very own life: friends and family reported strange Hat Man-style experiences. As Heidi’s research progressed, so did what appeared to be an uncanny awareness on the part of the Hat Man that Heidi was tracking him down.

    This is something I have personally experienced on a number of occasions: when we look for these entities something appears to alert them to what we’re doing. Heidi also notes how more than a few witnesses to the Hat Man have had prophetic dreams, and nightmares of a dark and apocalyptic future involving nuclear war.

    Now to the Men in Black, which I mentioned at the beginning of this article. In the same way that Heidi gets a massive amount of Hat Man reports, so I get a great deal of Men in Black reports – having written a couple of books on the subject and numerous articles. Heidi touches upon the MIB mystery in her book – which is not surprising, given that the MIB and the Hat Man look very alike.

    But there’s something else: I have a number of cases on record where people received MIB visitations after using Ouija boards – just like Heidi with the Hat Man. I have reports of people who have linked outbreaks of ill health with the MIB – which is also an aspect of the Hat Man controversy.

    And let’s not forget, when – near-singlehandedly – in the early 1950s Albert Bender ushered in the phenomenon of the Men in Black, his MIB were nothing like government agents. They manifested in his bedroom, late at night, amid an overpowering stench of brimstone. They had bright shining eyes and oozed menace. On top of that, Bender’s health was dramatically affected (in a bad way, I should stress) by his hat-wearing visitors of the night.

    Do I think the Hat Man and the Men in Black are both part of something bigger and inter-connected? Yes, I most certainly do.

    Heidi pulls no punches when it comes to her theories on what’s afoot: she is firmly of the opinion that the Hat Man is a devilish entity – as in literally. As a Christian, Heidi believes the Hat Man to be a minion of the Devil, a thing that is playing a major role in the battle between good and evil, and for the souls of the Human Race.

    Others may have differing opinions. The important fact, however, is that the Hat Man is being seen. And it’s being seen more and more. Something is going on. Something strange is out there. Something that wants us. Something that taunts and even manipulates us. Its name is the Hat Man. And you should most definitely read Heidi’s book on this ominous thing.
    Frances.
    Last edited by Frances, 26th March 2015 at 11:05.

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    Guardian Angels.




    Source :- http://www.visionaryliving.com/2008/...ion-to-angels/

    Rosemary Ellen Guiley | Paranormal Research | Ghosts & Hauntings - Visionary Living.

    Guardian Angels By Rosemary Ellen Guiley.

    Copyright Visionary Living, Inc.

    In recent years, we’ve witnessed a tremendous resurgence of interest in angels. This interest seems new to many people who are discovering angels for the first time. However, our presentation attention is but the latest part of a long tradition that has sought to preserve a sacred mystery. Angels reveal the path to God.

    Special devotion and veneration of the angels have been permitted, even encouraged, in the Christian church since the church’s beginnings. Devotional cults are most prominent in Catholicism. Catholic tradition regards angels as conscious beings of high intelligence, not bound by the limitations of physical laws, who can be of help to humanity–but who must not be worshiped or adored, or placed above Christ or God. Devotion to angels centers on imitating them, for they in turn imitate God. Veneration of saints is closely associated with angelic devotion, for saints are considered to be the real friends of angels and models of piety to men and women.

    Though angels played an important role in Christian piety from a very early stage, it was not until 325 A.D. that the Council of Nicea made belief in angels a part of dogma. This stimulated theological discussions and writings on angels that have continued to the present.

    The early Christian Church looked to St. Paul for setting the standard for veneration of angels. On various occasions, Paul referred to angels within a context of respect and veneration. In 1 Corinthians 11:1-16, for example, Paul discusses proper ways to worship. Women should worship with their heads covered, he says in 11:10, “because of the angels.” In this way, they show respect for the divine order, which is administered by angels (also, women are assigned a lower status than men, whose heads are Christ; men should not worship with their heads covered).

    Early Church Fathers were sometimes cautious about encouraging veneration of angels. On one hand, angels were convenient substitutes for pagan gods and daimones, a type of intermediary spirit, and thus aided the campaign for conversion. On the other hand, the Fathers did not wish to see worship of pagan gods merely transferred to angels. St. Justin Martyr defended veneration of angels, and the philosopher Celsus declared that angels were different from gods, else they would be called demons.

    Origen took pains to distinguish between worship of God and devotion to angels. In his work Contra Celsum, he states: “We indeed acknowledge that Angels are ministering spirits, and we say they are sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation, and that they ascend, bearing the supplications of men, to the purest of the heavenly places in the universe, or even to the supercelestial regions purer still, and they come down from these, conveying to each one, according to his deserts, something enjoined by God to be conferred by them upon those who are to be the recipients of His benefits… For every prayer and supplication and intercession is to be sent up to the Supreme God through the High Priest, who is above all the Angels, the living Word and God… It is enough to secure that the holy Angels be propitious to us, and that they do all things on our behalf, that our disposition of mind toward God should imitate, as far as possible for human nature, the example of these holy Angels, who themselves imitate the example of their God.”

    St. Augustine was among those who feared that veneration of angels would be confused with worship of pagan gods. “We honor them out of charity not out of servitude,” he said primly in De Vera Religione.

    Nonetheless, angels found their place in Christian faith, and by the sixth century veneration of them was firmly established. St. Benedict and Pope St. Gregory fostered devotion to angels. Devotion reached a height during the Middle Ages. St. Bernard of Clairvaux was especially ardent about the guardian angel. Citing Psalm 90:11, which states, “God has given his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways,” Bernard advocated lavishing great respect, gratitude and love upon angels.

    Testimony of the saints

    Devotion to angels was stimulated for centuries by the accounts of the saints, many of whom wrote or spoke of frequent encounters with angels. St. Gemma Galgani (1878-1903) had a rich visionary life, recorded in detail in her diaries and letters. She saw her guardian angel and heard his voice. Her conversations with her angel were observed and recorded by others who could only hear one side of the conversation–hers. Her spiritual director commented that whenever she saw or listened to her angel, she entered into an ecstatic state of consciousness, lost in another world; as soon as she turned her eyes away, she resumed her usual personality.
    Gemma’s angel was her constant companion, so familiar that she often treated him like a brother. She was once admonished by Father Germano, her spiritual director–who overheard one of her one-way conversations–that she should treat him with more respect. She agreed, and vowed to remain one hundred steps behind the angel whenever she saw him coming.

    Sometimes the angel was severe with her in order to keep her on the straight and narrow spiritual path. He would find fault with her, and tell her he was ashamed of her. If she strayed from the path, he would depart from her presence for awhile.

    Perhaps the most remarkable trademark of Gemma’s angel was his couriership. She would send him off on errands to deliver verbal messages to people in distant places, and return with their replies. Gemma considered this angelic postal service to be a natural thing. Others reportedly received the messages. Sometimes replies were delivered back to her by the guardian angel of Father Germano. When some suggested this was the work of the devil, Father Germano subjected Gemma to various spiritual tests, asking for irrefutable signs, and got them.

    One June 8, 1899, when Gemma was twenty-two, she received the stigmata. Her angel helped her climb into bed. Gemma was visited by other angels as well, and often by Father Germano’s guardian angel, who, she said, had a brilliant star over his head. No thought or deed of hers ever escaped angelic attention. If she was distracted in prayer, her angel would punish her. If she did not feel well, or if she would not eat enough, the angel exhibited a tender side, inquiring after her welfare and urging her to eat.

    Angelic confraternities

    Veneration of the angels also led to the establishment of confraternities, legal and approved associations whose purpose is work of piety or charity and the advancement of public worship. The first Archconfraternity of Saint Michael was established in 1878 in Italy (an archconfraternity has the right to affiliate other confraternities). Confraternities were particularly popular during the nineteenth century; they have had renewed interest in the latter twentieth century. In 1950, Philangeli was established in England with Episcopal approval, and has spread worldwide. Members seek to become real friends with angels.
    The Opus Sanctorum Angelorum (“The Work of the Holy Angels”) is one of the newer Catholic movements intended to renew and bolster belief in guardian angels, and to foster a collaboration between angels and humans for the glory of God, the salvation of humanity, and the regeneration of all creation. The Opus Sanctorum Angelorum was sanctioned by Pope Paul VI in 1968, who probably was influenced by Pope Pius XII, who advocated a renewal of devotion to angels.

    The goal of the Opus is a divine marriage between humanity and the angelic kingdom. The Opus teaches that the guardian angel protects against physical and spiritual danger, and evil thoughts; corrects people when they sin; enlightens and instructs; conveys prayers to God; assists in death; and takes souls to heaven or purgatory.

    Devotion today

    How should we regard angels today? While some people participate in devotional orders as a way of recognizing angels, most of us are more informal. Regardless of how we wish to try to communicate with angels, or what role we believe they play in our lives, it’s important to keep in mind that the ultimate purpose of angelic communion is to purify the soul and reach God. If we stay focussed on this idea, our interaction with this vibration of the Godhead will stay on a high plane of consciousness.
    Frances.
    Last edited by Frances, 26th March 2015 at 11:07.

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    The Hexham Heads

    In 1972 , the Robson family of Hexham Northumberland had just moved to their new house , the two young brothers Colin then 11 and Leslie 9 were clearing the garden when they dug up two strange 'heads'

    One apparently had a skull like face and appeared masculine leading to it being known as the 'boy'. It was greenish grey and glittered with crystal quartz.It seemed to have hair modelled in stripes from front to back.The other the 'girl ' or 'hag' was claimed to resemble a witch with bulging eyes and hair combed back into a 'bun'

    The story goes that once the heads were cleaned and put out on display in the house they were quickly put away as many strange 'poltergeist like' events occured. Some nights later their neighbours heard and saw a 'half man , half beast ' enter their bedroom , when they screamed the beast ignored them and padded out down the stairs 'as if on its hind legs '.The front door was later found to be open and they concluded the beast was searching for something and left to continue its search !

    The two heads were believed to be Celtic in origin and passed to collector Dr Anne Ross who had others in her possession and wished to compare them .A few nights later at her home in Southhampton, Dr Ross awoke at 2.am feeling cold and frightened and saw a strange creature in her bedroom doorway

    "It was about 6feet tall slightly stooping and it was black against the white door.It was half animal and half man . The upper part I would have said was a wolf , the lower part was human and I would have said it was covered with a kind of black , very dark fur . It went out and I just saw it clearly and then it disappeared , and something made me run after it , a thing I wouldn't normally have done ,but I felt compelled to . I got out of bed and just ran , I could hear it going down the stairs and then it disappeared towards the back of the house !"

    Some time later Dr Ross came home to find her daughter very distressed , she explained she unlocked the front door went in to see a large black shape rushing down the stairs , half way down it vaulted the bannister landing with a soft thud like a large heavy animal with padded feet .

    Dr Ross believed the Hexham Heads were responsible for these mysterious events and passed her whole collection onto other collectors. The Hexham Heads ending up in the British Museum where they were put on display then strangely removed .! To this day NO-ONE seems to know where the heads are or what happened to them !!!

    This is just a potted version of the story , there is a very good book "Quest for the Hexham Heads " by Paul Screeton, that takes you deeper into the tale and includes many interviews with those involved. The author has spent forty years investigating , and still continues hoping to find out more

    Sorry Frances I know you like pictures , but having a few issues with my old laptop at the moment , I'm sure you will find some for us , you are the Queen of this thread

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